The Republicans wouldn't accept him? In what way? He could have registered as a Republican w/o anyone knowing if he wanted to. My guess is that the GOP wouldn't take a bribe with a guarantee of something like Ambassador to the Court of King James as payback.
Old Joe was a philandering, whiskey smuggling limosine gangster. I'm glad he wasn't a Republican.
Joe Kennedy went to, and graduated, from Harvard University around 1909. At that time Harvard was all East Coast Establishment, and East Coast Establishment was all Republican. Kennedy started shmoozing the sons of the Establishment as soon as he landed at Harvard. Kennedy was ambitious, and wanted to rub shoulders with the East Coast Establishment as an equal. His purpose in becoming involved in politics was not ideological, it was practical — to get ahead.
The Republican Establishment was not interested in rubbing shoulders with an Irish upstart, according to the book I read.
Nazi lover too.
The Republicans didn’t fancy “Catholics.”